


The Birds and the Bats

by arielchan



Category: Batman (Comics)
Genre: F/M, Implied Relationships, M/M, Underage Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-16
Updated: 2012-01-16
Packaged: 2017-10-29 15:53:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/321592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arielchan/pseuds/arielchan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tim has trouble understanding how his relationship with Bruce has changed recently. Dick pops in with some brotherly advice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Birds and the Bats

**Author's Note:**

> This is an old fic - from 2006 - which has never before been posted outside my locked journal.

Fifteen year old Timothy Drake, also known as Robin, the Boy Wonder, was sitting on a rooftop in Gotham engaged in some very serious brooding training, courtesy of his mentor, Batman. Brooding was a carefully cultivated habit, and a trait present naturally only in teenagers, members of the Batfamily, and the occasional poncy vampire, and since the current Robin fit into two of those categories, he had it down to an art form.

What Timmy was pondering with great seriousness was the recent change in behavior of his mentor that had accompanied his change from Robin-in-Training to full-fledged birdboy. Admittedly, it was hard to tell when Batman changed moods, as he seemed to have only one pervading state of mind- solemn, angsty, and a little psychotic- but Tim had analyzed and analyzed until he realized he’d either found something or analyzed himself into paranoia.

Paranoia, being a normal state of mind for him, was preferable.

Behind him, he felt the distinct sound of air displacement on the rooftop, no more than the flutter of a raven’s wings as it landed on the roof.

“Good evening, Dick,” said Tim.

“Brushing up on your creepy Bat-skills tonight, Little Brother?” asked Dick Grayson, former Boy Wonder, now a bird of a different feather, as he look a seat Indian style beside the heir to his legend. “Is this an assignment from the boss, or just a lesson in overachievement to all sub-standard sidekicks?”

Tim shrugged. “I’m just thinking,” he said.

“Really,” Dick replied. “Cuz it looked like brooding to me. Horrible disease, brooding. You catch it from prolonged exposure to dark, damp, and Bruce.” Tim laughed a little and Dick grinned, slapping him on the shoulder. “Gotham is full of gloomy thoughts.”

Silence, for a moment, then Tim asked, “How long were you in training before you got into the Robin gig?”

“Not long,” Dick said. “A month or two, but I came into the game with a whole set of evasive skills. I just needed to know how to use them in a fight.”

“Did Bruce act any… different? Once you became Robin, I mean.” Tim was staring studiously over the edge of the roof, but all his attention was focused behind him.

“Different? Yeah, of course,” Dick caught Tim’s sigh of relief. “I mean, he was more protective, so he was harder on me. He didn’t want anything around to distract me from the fights, because he knew it only took a moment to get hurt.” He noticed the sudden slump of Tim’s shoulders, and something clicked in his mind. “That’s… not what you mean, is it?”

“No,” said Tim. “He’s not being harder on me. He was hard on me all through training, but now he’s… well, not nice, but almost. We finish a fight, and he puts his hand on my shoulder, tells me I did well, even when I know I dodged a punch too slowly, or I pulled a kick at the last second.”

“Tim,” Dick said calmly. “It sounds like I need to give you The Talk.”

Tim scoffed. “I hardly see how that is appropriate for the situation. Also, I’m a bit old for the Birds and the Bees, don’t you think?”

“Not that talk, Little Brother. It’s more like the Birds and the Bats.” Dick reached over and physically turned Tim so that they were facing each other in mirror positions, the smaller one surly, having spent too much time with Batman, the larger one full of a skin-level energy, having spent too much time with Wally West and Clark Kent.

“You see, Little Bird, when a Bat meets a Bird that he thinks is pretty damn handy with a grappling hook, he takes the Bird under his wing.”

“You’re mixing metaphors,” Tim interjected. “That phrase refers to birds.”

“Bats have wings too,” Dick said defensively. “Anyway, he takes the Bird in and teaches it how to fly better. And boy, do they ever fly. Thing is, when you fly with the same person day in and day out, you start noticing how graceful she is-“

“She?” Tim interrupted again. “Now you’re mixing pronouns.”

“No I’m not. Bats can be either gender, I was just using the male word for it earlier. Let me make my damn speech! So the Bird and the Bat start appreciating each other, aesthetically, and pretty soon there’s a bond there. The kind of bond depends on the personalities involved. Sometimes, it’s just respect and trust. Sometimes, there’s something else, something that belongs better with the other kind of Talk.”

“I see,” said Tim. “So you and Bruce…”

“We’ve had both to an extent,” said Dick quickly. “But when Barbara came along, well, Bruce and I do better with respect and trust anyway, now that we have it. You have to realize, a bond will form regardless, but you have the say in how it grows.”

“I understand,” Tim said methodically. “Thank you for clearing all this up. You’ve been very helpful.”

“No problem,” Dick replied cheerfully, hopping to his feet and moving to the edge of the roof. “And also remember that a Bat isn’t necessarily The Bat. A Bat can be anyone you fly with.”

“And if I fly with other birds?”

Dick grinned, pausing before a takeoff. “That can be a whole different mess of feathers.”

On a neighboring roof, crouched with a pair of binoculars, Batman smirked slightly to himself and then winged away, thinking of birds and bats, caves and nests.


End file.
